Communication service providers, from cable to cellular to satellite providers, are ever mindful of the performance and availability of their networks. One key aspect for ensuring high performance and high availability concerns how traffic is engineered. For instance, if certain communication circuits or channels are constantly over-loaded, while others are underutilized, the service provider incurs great costs. That is, because some circuits are oversubscribed, users assigned to these circuits will not have service, and yet, the system does have circuits that are hardly employed, resulting in wasted capacity. Further, this in effect unfairly blocks certain subscribers from obtaining network capacity. Consequently, to ensure capacity is allocated properly, network traffic load has to be determined accurately and in a manner that does not introduce significant cost to the network service provider. Additionally, from an auditing standpoint, subscribers to services of a communication system may need information on the amount of traffic that they actually originate for transmission over the transport network to avoid being overcharged.
The cost can stem from actual cost in developing and deploying new hardware and software to accommodate needed traffic load information. Unfortunately, many conventional communication systems are bound by legacy platforms and protocols, such that a “forklift” implementation approach is cost prohibitive. As a result, any contemplated modification to software and protocols can exact a tremendous cost to the system, whereby benefits from the new protocols are overshadowed by the heavy cost. Moreover, it is recognized that many communication systems employ protocols that follow a standard, whether actual or de facto, wherein the modifications can result in non-compliance with the standard.
Based on the foregoing, there is a clear need for improved approaches for assessing traffic load, while minimizing costs.